Caught on video: Bayou sinkhole swallows trees

Officials in Assumption Parish recorded the sinkhole in Bayou Corne swallowing a cluster of trees in less than a minute Wednesday.

The sinkhole pulled the trees down into the water with nearby water funneling down with it.

The video recorded by parish officials was posted to YouTube on Wednesday night.

The Louisiana governor's office and the attorney general have sued the company, Texas Brine, that owns the salt dome cavern that was blamed for the expanding sinkhole.

The lawsuit came after a year when an evacuation order was mandated to the hundreds of homeowners who lived nearby.

Texas Brine is negotiating buyouts.

In May 2012, Assumption Parish authorities responded to a report of bubbles in Bayou Corne, which is a sign of natural gas in the aquifer.

The governor's office declared a state of emergency in August, and Assumption Parish ordered a mandatory evacuation for the 350 people living there.

Since the original bubble site was found, other sites have been reported, and the state and parish are investigating each one of them, sampling, monitoring them and actually taking video of each one of them to see if they get worse.

Dozens of air monitors have been installed in and around residents' homes checking for elevated gas levels that could be explosive.

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